A disc drive device is conventionally fitted inside the casing of a modern personal computer. Whether the disc drive is a hard disc drive, a floppy disc drive or an optical storage drive (eg CD or DVD ROM drive), the drive will generally be of a standard form factor and provided with fixing holes in standard positions. Whatever the form or make of the drive, it then becomes possible for a computer manufacturer to provide a standard mounting arrangement that typically takes the form of a metal frame with side bars having fixing holes through which self-tapping screws can be inserted to engage in the holes in the side faces of the drive. Whilst this standard disposition of the holes is of great help to the computer manufacturer, the use of fixing screws for securing the drive in position is not ideal, the fixing operation being intricate and time-consuming.
Another approach for mounting disk drives in a computer chassis involves rails that are assembled to the drives. According to this technique, the drive, with the rail secured thereto, is slid in from the front of the chassis and either snapped or screwed in place.
Examples of this type of mounting can be found, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,909, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,923.
Whilst this approach generally provides for ready attachment and release of the drive from the chassis, if the drive, with the attached brackets or rails is screwed in the chassis, it gives rise to the same problems described above. Furthermore, there needs to be a way to secure the rails or other intermediate fixing member that must first be secured to the drive. Screws are often used for this, although U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,547 proposes the use of pins that are slideably receivable in apertures located in opposed sides of a drive.
A variety of other fixing arrangements for disk drives have also been proposed and examples can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,088, U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,340, U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,547 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,211. U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,099 describes the use of a generally U-shaped bracket to which a drive is screwed. The bracket is then mountable within a chassis without the use of screws.
Whilst the existing methods are no doubt generally satisfactory, a need still exists for improving yet further such mounting arrangements to simplify for the user the attachment of subsystem units within a personal computer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a screwless fixing arrangement for simplifying the attachment of a data-storage drive and similar units to a support structure.